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Topic: HTC Desire Review (Read 1430 times)

If you've seen the Google Nexus One, you've seen the HTC Desire. End of story. We liked the Nexus One so be our guest, HTC Desire. But is it all that simple?

HTC are so good they build phones for the competition. HTC are so mean they have no issues competing with their own clients. And is it us or are the clients ultimately left with a rather disturbing question: do HTC work for us or do we work for them? Go ask Sony Ericsson and Google.

Disappointing video qualityLimited storage available to the user on the system partition (you are left with only 120 MB for installing apps)No DivX and XviD video playback No voice dialingNon hot-swappable memory card

While the Google Nexus One is still confined to selected countries, its twin, the HTC Desire, is already in stores across the globe. And that may be great news for users on markets still ungraced by Google. It's the same phone - take away the Google logo, and add a few nice little things.

But it's not the differences that you'll care about. It's what both devices have in common that make them so attractive.

Of course we mean the large capacitive AMOLED touchscreen, the fresh Android OS v2.1 they run, the great performance on the 1GHz Snapdragon processor, and the 5-megapixel autofocus cameras they come with.

HTC Desire live shots

Eventually, you'll notice that these are actually two different phones. The Nexus One's trackball is gone for an optical trackpad. The controls on the Desire are actual buttons instead of the capacitive keys on the Google phone. On the homescreen, you'll see the latest Sense UI waving Hello.

Some platforms just don't seem to change for years. The Android OS is evolving at amazing speed. The Desire is one of the first devices to come with the latest version of the Android operating system but more importantly, being so powerful, it's among the few to reveal what ?clair is actually capable of.

Those lines sound as if the Desire is free from sin. It really isn't. There is always room for improvement - and that's especially true for Android handsets. But before we get to that, join us on the next page first to see what's hiding in that tiny retail box.